The commit that pushed nothing

My project folder was its own git repository, nested inside another one. When I ran git add automation from the parent, git did not add the files. It recorded a gitlink — a pointer to a commit inside the inner repo.

$ git ls-files -s
160000 50004e13… 0  automation

Mode 160000 means submodule. There was no .gitmodules file either, so it was a broken one.

What it looked like

GitHub showed a grey folder I could not click into. The commit it pointed at only ever existed on my laptop. Every git push reported success.

The fix

Remove the inner .git, drop the gitlink from the index, and add the files properly:

git rm --cached automation
git add automation/

Takeaway

Verify the effect, not the acknowledgement. Open the repository on GitHub and confirm the files are actually browsable.